Percy gets rescued! Cue concerned girlfriends!
Replies:
InfiniteShadow3: Daedalus is jaded. He himself is a little broken, so yeah he underestimates her. Maybe because he thinks anyone would break, and that may lessen his guilt.
Undeath9087: Percy to a degree gets that his situation is complicated. Meanwhile Annabeth and Piper are just there sharpening their weapons with insane grins like 'Well now Daedalus. We heard you made our girlfriend bleed. And even worse you made her sad. Now suffer!'
Guest: That's so sweet thank you!
MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior: Well, they won't be looking for the string exactly. They'll be 'hunting' him.

Percy woke to hands on her face, a panicked voice in her ear. "Oh gods, oh gods this is so bad wake up. Percy wake up- Annabeth will kill me if I tell her you're dead wake up!" and that was… was that Grover's voice? Why was Grover talking to her? And why did her head feel like it was on fire. And her whole body actually- especially her shoulder.

Fuck that shoulder hurt, and her ankle. What had happened- she wasn't led in a bed she could feel that much, cold stone beneath her back. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking fuzzily up at Grover- and for a long moment it looked like there were three Grovers. And ugh but she wanted to close her eyes, to get some sort of relief for the pain.

"Ugh- my head hurts shush." She mumbled the words, and Grover practically sobbed with relief.

"Oh you're awake you're awake you're not dead."

"Not yet." Percy groaned, forcing herself to focus on Grover. "What happened-" she knew something had. Something important but she couldn't quite grasp it yet. "Wish I was right now though-"

"You must have hit your head or something." Grover slid an arm under her to help her sit up, though he flinched at the growl from-

"Mrs. O'Leary?" Percy managed to focus on the giant hellhound, who was watching her like a hawk, sat staring as if he'd been guarding her- "Da-Quintus." Her eyes widened and she shot upright- not a fun thing because it caused her head to spin and her whole body to ache, her right arm hanging limply at her side, even trying to move her fingers caused pain to shoot up it.

"What happened?" Grover's voice was urgent before, "No- no answer that later we need to get you out of here."

"Where-" Percy blinked as more memories came flooding back, "The Labyrinth I was- fuck I was so stupid."

She'd let her guard down, forgotten about Mrs. O'Leary and she'd gotten injured. And that had made her more vulnerable. It was a stupid mistake especially for her. She was supposed to be better than that.

"We've been looking for you all day." Grover shook his head, "Annabeth and Piper thought you must have gone for a walk or something at first. They found one of your necklaces on the beach. They've been so worried."

"All day- what time is it?"

"It's like four in the afternoon."

"Fuck." Percy groaned, leaning against Grover. "I fucked up."

"Uh huh. Let's get out of here and then you can explain." Grover shuddered. "I offered to help search the woods and Juniper told me she thought she heard you yelling something last night near here. You're lucky."

"Juniper?"

"My girlfriend." Grover blushed- and under different circumstances Percy would have teased him. As it was all she could do was manage a weak smile.

"Cool. Tell her I said thanks okay?" she was probably very lucky that nothing had happened to her but- her eyes slipped to Mrs O'Leary again. "You guarded me."

There was a loud bark, and almost a nod from the giant dog.

"Good girl." Percy let out a shaky breath, "You come with us girl. He's gone." He'd left his beloved Hellhound behind just to protect her.

Percy wasn't sure what that meant. She wasn't sure what she thought about Daedalus. He hadn't decided what side he was on yet, and yet he'd made sure she'd be safe while she was out.

But then he was the reason she was out… ugh she hated the complicated ones. They made it so difficult to just be angry and hate them.

"Can you stand- gods your head." Grover's expression was horrified so Percy reached up with her left arm, wincing at the way that even moving made her hurt, and she hissed in pain as her fingers gently probed at her head, feeling dried blood and what was probably a nasty gash.

"Can I steal your cap to hide it until we're in the infirmary?" Percy asked weakly, shooting Grover a hopeful look, "I don't want people to freak out."

"Of course." Grover pulled his cap off, carefully setting it on her head, clearly trying to avoid hurting her. Which was real sweet.

"You're the best goat boy ever." Percy patted his shoulder, "Can you help me up. I'm gonna try standing."

And it took some time but eventually Percy was on her feet, clinging to Grover to balance.

Her left foot was swollen badly. It was a good thing she'd been barefoot because if she hadn't been she'd probably have had to cut her foot out of the shoe. Then again maybe her ankle might not have turned.

After some struggling Percy simply had to hold onto Grover from behind, wrapping her legs around him and hooking her uninjured arm around his neck.

If the situation was more urgent she'd try to fix up her arm herself. She was pretty sure it was just dislocated. But there wasn't any seriously pressing danger so it would be best to let someone who actually knew about healing deal with it.

And soon enough Percy and Grover were out of the Labyrinth, Grover grimacing as he climbed and pulled them both out safely, followed closely by Mrs. O'Leary, who somehow managed to slip out of the gap behind them.

Percy wondered if the Labyrinth had a fondness for the hound, just as it's creator did.

"Oh Grover!" that came from a petite girl, with pale green skin and wispy amber hair. She was pretty, and her green eyes were filled with worry. "Oh thank goodness you were In there for over an hour! I was going to go and run for help-"

"An hour?" Grover bleated the word, his eyes wide, "It was only-"

"Time moves differently in there." Percy managed, ugh my head is still pounding."

"You're the Egyptian Princess aren't you?" Juniper clasped her hands together, "Oh I am so glad you're safe! I heard something last night but I was too afraid to come out and then- well I'm glad you're okay."

"I need to get her to the Big House." Grover told Juniper, "I'll be back soon Juniper but-"

"Of course, of course you go. I'll- I'll stay here and watch this place for you."

And Grover got moving, half carrying Percy out of the woods, Mrs. O'Leary whining and snuffling behind them until Percy heard a familiar barking from the direction of the beach, and then she saw Argos, racing towards her, his barks high and excited- and then she heard voices, Piper and Annabeth's voices, and Chiron.

Then her girls were pulling her from Grover, or they tried to, until Mrs. O'Leary growled at them- and didn't stop until Percy managed to turn and call for her to calm down.

Clearly she was taking her masters orders very seriously. But she listened to Percy and backed down, letting Piper and Annabeth take Percy.

From there she was rushed to the infirmary, the Apollo kids who had been in there getting unceremoniously ordered out, and before long Percy was set on one of the beds, and after Chiron had pushed her shoulder back into the socket and she'd had some Nectar and Ambrosia came the obvious question.

"Percy where were you?" It was Annabeth who asked, "You- when we saw Grover carrying you- you looked terrible."

"I've had worse."

"She was in the Labyrinth." Grover piped up, "Juniper told me she'd heard yelling in the area so I looked and I found her in there."

"Oh Percy what happened?" Piper perched on the bed next to her, smoothing her fingers through Percy's hair, knocking the cap off her head, showing the blood stains, though she and Annabeth both visibly restrained themselves from commenting on it.

"It-" Percy let out a slow breath. "I had a dream and I needed some air so I went to the beach. I always go to the beach."

"That's only natural." Chiron's voice was gentle. "And the subject of this dream?"

"Daedalus and Icarus. And- I guess it must have been King Minos." Percy grimaced a little. "I saw them. Held captive. It wasn't a nice dream. I did think maybe it was a hint about the string but now I think it was a message about Daedalus himself-"

"Daedalus is long dead Percy I doubt the dream could tell you much-"

"It gave me an insight." Percy leaned back into Piper's side, resting her head on the other girls shoulder as Annabeth rubbed her back soothingly. "I was on the beach and I ran into Quintus-"

Chiron stiffened slightly, though he didn't look entirely surprised, "I had noticed that he seemed to be absent from the search-" which earned surprised looks from Annabeth and Piper. "And I did notice that you were being followed by his Hellhound."

"He-" Percy blinked. "He ordered her to make sure no harm came to me."

"Oh?" Chiron looked startled. "I thought- I was concerned that perhaps he was a spy but if he ordered you protected-"

"No. No not a spy." Percy swallowed hard, "I don't- I don't know how. I don't understand it but he- when we were talking on the beach he slipped up. He talked about how he'd believed the Egyptian gods had faded- that was what first made me suspicious and then we were talking about my names- and he- he spoke about her like he knew her."

"But that-" Chiron started to pale. "How could-"

"I don't know. I don't know Chiron but- Quintus was Daedalus. I- I talked to him- I tried to- we talked and he told me he was observing. Trying to make a decision on which side he'd back-"

"Wait-" Annabeth looked stunned, "Quintus is- that would make him my brother-"

"What choice is there?" Piper demanded, "He can't really be considering helping Kronos-"

"If he is alive then Daedalus has spent many years evading death." Chiron said the words slowly, "A man like that likely has many reasons to be weary of the gods and Kronos could offer much that might interest him. Especially since King Minos, as a son of Zeus sits in judgement in the Underworld."

"The way he treated Daedalus-" Percy blinked, "He'd never judge fairly."

"Oh gods-" Piper let out a weak laugh, "You're considering going to the Underworld to have it out with your uncle aren't you."

"Minos shouldn't be in judgement. He seemed like a terrible person from my dream."

"Perhaps but he was a son of Zeus-"

"Maybe it's Lord Zeus I should yell at."

"And perhaps we are getting sidetracked?" Chiron raised an eyebrow, "That does seem to happen rather a lot around you miss Kane-"

"Sorry. Sorry it's just been a lot. He told me he hadn't made up his mind. But- I guess my knowing meant that he couldn't stay." Percy bit her lip, "I tried to get him to tell me where the string was- he told me he didn't have it so I told him to take me to it. But I was so focused on him I forgot about Mrs O'Leary and she caught me by surprise. I wasn't even able to cast a spell to slow my fall- she just flung me across the beach I landed on my shoulder and my head-"

"And he ran. To the Labyrinth."

"My head was splitting but I went after him. It took me too long to even be able to summon a light it was so hard to focus-"

"I imagine it did." Chiron had a stern look on his face, "The amount of blood on your head- you must have hit it hard."

"Probably. My head has taken a battering." She let out a breath. "I followed him into the woods and into the Labyrinth but he was waiting. Hit me over the head with the hilt of his sword and when I didn't go unconscious he kicked my head. I was too dazed to do much of anything but… before I passed out I heard him ordering Mrs. O'Leary to protect me. He told me he hasn't made his mind up yet but that it needs to be his choice. Guess he knows that if he stayed here he wouldn't be given one."

"I'll kill him." Annabeth hissed the words, "I don't care that he's my brother I'll kill him-"

"Only if I don't get to him first."

"Stop it-" Percy shook her head, "Stop it you two please I- he left Mrs. O'Leary to protect me. He didn't have to but he left her behind to protect me. I think- he's leaning more towards us than them. We don't want that to change do we?"